July 15, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Mark Foster, an all-around Southern boy, never imagined his next business meeting would involve arm wrestling a Chinese Communist Party official after a chance encounter in an empty hotel bar. But one favor from his father-in-law changed everything. Mark shares the story of one unforgettable and wild trip overseas that was anything but “just business.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we returned to our American stories. We've all experienced
being dragged places by family before, but Mark Foster never
dreamed of going abroad when he answered a phone call
from his father in law of Robert Williams and landed
him face to face with communist China and his story
He'll never forget here to tell the story of a
strange road trip is the man himself. Take it away. Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I show up and we exchanged pleasantries, and again he
asked me, you know, what are you gonna do? And
I told him, I really don't have any plans for
the you know, near term. He said, well, I need
you to do something before me, and I said what
is that. He said, well, you know, your brother in law, Todd,
met some engineer from Mississippi who's developed some medical device
(00:58):
and Todd wants is to invest in it, and then
they're going to have it manufacturing in China. And I
said China. They said, yeah, they're going to go to
China and I need you to go over there with them.
And I said, why in the world do you need
me to go over there. I don't know anything about
medical equipment. He said, well, I want I want you
to make sure your brother in law didn't sign any
contracts or agrees to anything. I said, so, in other words,
(01:19):
I'm going to be a babysitter. He said, well, I
guess you could put it that way. He had already
bought my tickets. I said, well when am I going?
He said, day after tomorrow. And I like Lord, I said,
see says chill made. He said, you know, don't worry
about her. I take care of her. So next thing
I know, I'm on a plane. Fly to Atlanta and
then fly from Atlanta to Tokyo, which is fourteen and
(01:43):
a half hours. I don't know if if you've ever
been on an airplane for that long, it's absolutely miserable.
But anyway, we're flying to Tokyo. I spent the night
there and then flew to Hong Kong and we spent
a I guess it was a night or two there,
and then we went in to South Chine. Went through immigration,
which was really kind of nerve wracking because you got
(02:06):
all these Chinese soldiers standing around with weapons. We go
through and we get on a van and there's actually
about fourteen or fifteen people on this little escapade and
we drive up this highway. So we get to get
to this city that we're supposed to spend the night
in and then the next day go two or three facilities.
(02:27):
And we were supposed to go to a banquet in
a you know, a couple of hours in the hotel.
So Id said, hey, you want to go get a drink?
And I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? And you know,
let's look look around the area. So we were walking
out the front door and this guard stops us, won't
let us go out the door. I'm like, what is
going on here? And he pointed over to the receptionist.
(02:50):
She spoke some English, she can understand what we were
talking about, and she said, how can I help you.
We said we wanted to go get a drink and
just walk around, and she said, no, you can't leave
the hotel. We've got instructions that y'all are not to
leave the hotel. And so we said, well, okay, but
how about getting a drink? She said, you can go
(03:12):
up on the second floor where the banquet room is
and there'll be somebody up there. Y'all can get a
drink if you want one. So we went up there
and then we you know, we're just kind of standing
there and this man comes walking out from the kitchen
area and says, can I help you. We said, well, yeah,
(03:34):
we were looking for a drink, and he said, well,
what would you like? Said, well, just a beer would
be fine, And so he says, I'll get you one.
I'll be right back, and he goes back in the kitchen.
He comes out he's got three beers. Well, it's just
Todd and I and I'm wondering, you know, why did
he bring three beers. He starts drinking a beer too.
(03:56):
So we drank that first beer and he says, you
want another one? We see, well, was sure. He walked
back he got another three beers. Well, then he started
drinking about two for one with us, and I mean
he put away a few beers over the course of
the next hour and a half and we had a
you know, fun conversation with him. He's interesting guy. I
(04:16):
spoke very good English and had actually been educating the
United States, at least that's what he told us. So
then it's about time for the banquet and people are
starting to come in. So Todd and I go to
the table that we were assigned to and this fella
comes over and sits down with us, and I'm like, wow,
(04:37):
you know, I'm thinking this guys the assistant manager of
the kitchen or something. I'm like, you know, he just
drank about twelve beers and he's gonna wind up getting
in some big time trouble. They go around the room
and you're you're supposed to stand up and introduce yourself. Well,
he come around to our table and I stand up.
You know, I'm Mark Foster from Mobile, Alabama, and this
(04:59):
fella stands mem He says, my name is mister Wu
I'm the Secretary General of this provence. And Todd and
I looked at each other like, you got to be
kidding me. This guy is a head communist in this
whole area, and we've been, you know, making fun with
him and digging at him some, and I started thinking
he's probably going to take us somewhere and torture us.
(05:22):
He looks at his watch and says, I've got to
go to another meeting, but i'll be back about ten
thirty to pick you and mister Martin up and take
you to see the city. And I'm like, you know,
it's like eight o'clock or eight thirty by this time,
I'm thinking, there's no way this guy is coming back.
(05:42):
So I just kind of forget about it, and we
go up to our rams lay down. I'm trying to
go sleep, and it's you know, it's ten thirty or so,
and my ring foam rings and I pick it up
and I hear this, mister Foss, this is mister Wu.
(06:03):
I'm downstairs waiting for you and mister Martin take you
out to see the city. And I thought it was
my brother in law, you know, messing with me. So
I said, Todd, go back to sleep. Man, I'm tired.
So I hung up phone rings again. I said, mister Foster,
this really mister Wu. I'm downstairs to pick you up.
(06:23):
So I thought, I cannot believe that clown is down there.
So I go knock on Todd's door and I said, Todd,
mister Wu is downstairs wants to take us out. He said,
I got a terrible headache. I just I can't do it.
You're going to have to carry the flag some like
go great. So I go down there and sure enough,
there he is. And we walk out the front door
(06:48):
and there's this like a Chinese Humvy type vehicle, and
I get up in that thing with him, and there's
there's a driver and he's got this lady back there,
and this is miss so and so. She's from Beijing.
She's an interpreter. I thought, oh great, you know they're
gonna take me somewhere. And he terrogate me, you want
(07:11):
to get another drink. I'm like, whatever you want to do,
mister Wa. We go to another hotel and walk into
the bar. It's pretty late, there's still quite a few
people in there, and we walk in and you could
tell immediately everybody in there and knew exactly who mister
Wu was. And of course they're looking at me because
I'm sure a lot of them had never seen an
(07:31):
American before. And we sat down at the table and
we're talking. Back in those days, I was in pretty
good physical condition. He reaches over and grabs my bicep,
squeezed and said, oh, you're very strolled. We kind of
laughed and he squeezed it again. You said you're very strong,
or Russell. I said what he said, arm Russell. He
(07:57):
throws his little skinny elbows up on the table. I
reached over there and put him down at about a
nano second, and he was like you were very strong.
So he brings over a couple other guys and they
iron wrestled them. I wind up arm wrestling probably ten
of these Chinese guys. Now I'm, you know, just taking
them down. Almost immediately. He looks at me and he says,
(08:20):
when are you supposed to leave? I said, well, we're
supposed to get on the bus by about seven in
the morning to head back to the coast and then
go to Hong Kong and fly home. And it's like
four o'clock in the morning by now. And he looks
at me. He said, you're not going home. I said,
what do you mean, I'm not going on? He said,
You're going to stay here and we're going to go
(08:40):
around arm wrestling and we're going to make a lot
of money. I said, mister Woo, I cannot do that.
I've got three kids at home, I've got things to do.
I cannot stay. He said, oh, yeah, you're staying. Well
I knew, you know, he pretty much held all the
chips and it was a long way to run to
the coast. So I thought about it for a second.
I said, I tell you what I'll do. You let
(09:00):
me go home and I'll promise you, I'll come back
in a couple of months, said, I'm going to bring
a buddy of mine from Mobile out here, as strong
as human being ever seen in my life. I guarantee it.
There's nobody in China that can beat this guy on
in wrestling. And he looked at me and he said,
are you telling me the truth? I said, yes, sir,
he is. Nobody can beat this guy. He said, you
promise you'll come back. I said, oh, yeah, I'll come back.
(09:22):
So he takes me back to the hotel and literally
I had fifteen minutes to go pack my stuff and
get back on the van we had taken us down
to the coast, and then we got on a on
hovercraft and went back to him to Hong Kong. And
I tell you, I was was like looking over my
shoulder the whole time, scared to death that, you know,
(09:43):
a pack of Chinese soldiers were going to be chasing me.
Fly back in the United States and landing in Atlanta
and I'm coming through US customs and you know, lady
agent looks at my looks at my passport, says, oh,
you've been to China, And I said yes, ma'am, And
she said, well, welcome back to United States, I said, lady,
(10:04):
you don't know how glad I am to be back
in the United States.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Billy Foster. And a special thanks to
Mark Foster his road trip from well, you know where.
And we all have them, folks. By the way, they
end up being great stories in the end, not while
you're going through them, but when you get out of them,
when they're in the rear view, they become really funny.
Send your road trips stories gone wrong to Ouramerican stories
(10:36):
dot com. That's road trips gone wrong. Send them to
our American stories dot com. The American businessman in China
here on our American Story
And we returned to our American stories. We've all experienced
being dragged places by family before, but Mark Foster never
dreamed of going abroad when he answered a phone call
from his father in law of Robert Williams and landed
him face to face with communist China and his story
He'll never forget here to tell the story of a
strange road trip is the man himself. Take it away. Mark.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I show up and we exchanged pleasantries, and again he
asked me, you know, what are you gonna do? And
I told him, I really don't have any plans for
the you know, near term. He said, well, I need
you to do something before me, and I said what
is that. He said, well, you know, your brother in law, Todd,
met some engineer from Mississippi who's developed some medical device
(00:58):
and Todd wants is to invest in it, and then
they're going to have it manufacturing in China. And I
said China. They said, yeah, they're going to go to
China and I need you to go over there with them.
And I said, why in the world do you need
me to go over there. I don't know anything about
medical equipment. He said, well, I want I want you
to make sure your brother in law didn't sign any
contracts or agrees to anything. I said, so, in other words,
(01:19):
I'm going to be a babysitter. He said, well, I
guess you could put it that way. He had already
bought my tickets. I said, well when am I going?
He said, day after tomorrow. And I like Lord, I said,
see says chill made. He said, you know, don't worry
about her. I take care of her. So next thing
I know, I'm on a plane. Fly to Atlanta and
then fly from Atlanta to Tokyo, which is fourteen and
(01:43):
a half hours. I don't know if if you've ever
been on an airplane for that long, it's absolutely miserable.
But anyway, we're flying to Tokyo. I spent the night
there and then flew to Hong Kong and we spent
a I guess it was a night or two there,
and then we went in to South Chine. Went through immigration,
which was really kind of nerve wracking because you got
(02:06):
all these Chinese soldiers standing around with weapons. We go
through and we get on a van and there's actually
about fourteen or fifteen people on this little escapade and
we drive up this highway. So we get to get
to this city that we're supposed to spend the night
in and then the next day go two or three facilities.
(02:27):
And we were supposed to go to a banquet in
a you know, a couple of hours in the hotel.
So Id said, hey, you want to go get a drink?
And I'm like, yeah, sure, why not? And you know,
let's look look around the area. So we were walking
out the front door and this guard stops us, won't
let us go out the door. I'm like, what is
going on here? And he pointed over to the receptionist.
(02:50):
She spoke some English, she can understand what we were
talking about, and she said, how can I help you.
We said we wanted to go get a drink and
just walk around, and she said, no, you can't leave
the hotel. We've got instructions that y'all are not to
leave the hotel. And so we said, well, okay, but
how about getting a drink? She said, you can go
(03:12):
up on the second floor where the banquet room is
and there'll be somebody up there. Y'all can get a
drink if you want one. So we went up there
and then we you know, we're just kind of standing
there and this man comes walking out from the kitchen
area and says, can I help you. We said, well, yeah,
(03:34):
we were looking for a drink, and he said, well,
what would you like? Said, well, just a beer would
be fine, And so he says, I'll get you one.
I'll be right back, and he goes back in the kitchen.
He comes out he's got three beers. Well, it's just
Todd and I and I'm wondering, you know, why did
he bring three beers. He starts drinking a beer too.
(03:56):
So we drank that first beer and he says, you
want another one? We see, well, was sure. He walked
back he got another three beers. Well, then he started
drinking about two for one with us, and I mean
he put away a few beers over the course of
the next hour and a half and we had a
you know, fun conversation with him. He's interesting guy. I
(04:16):
spoke very good English and had actually been educating the
United States, at least that's what he told us. So
then it's about time for the banquet and people are
starting to come in. So Todd and I go to
the table that we were assigned to and this fella
comes over and sits down with us, and I'm like, wow,
(04:37):
you know, I'm thinking this guys the assistant manager of
the kitchen or something. I'm like, you know, he just
drank about twelve beers and he's gonna wind up getting
in some big time trouble. They go around the room
and you're you're supposed to stand up and introduce yourself. Well,
he come around to our table and I stand up.
You know, I'm Mark Foster from Mobile, Alabama, and this
(04:59):
fella stands mem He says, my name is mister Wu
I'm the Secretary General of this provence. And Todd and
I looked at each other like, you got to be
kidding me. This guy is a head communist in this
whole area, and we've been, you know, making fun with
him and digging at him some, and I started thinking
he's probably going to take us somewhere and torture us.
(05:22):
He looks at his watch and says, I've got to
go to another meeting, but i'll be back about ten
thirty to pick you and mister Martin up and take
you to see the city. And I'm like, you know,
it's like eight o'clock or eight thirty by this time,
I'm thinking, there's no way this guy is coming back.
(05:42):
So I just kind of forget about it, and we
go up to our rams lay down. I'm trying to
go sleep, and it's you know, it's ten thirty or so,
and my ring foam rings and I pick it up
and I hear this, mister Foss, this is mister Wu.
(06:03):
I'm downstairs waiting for you and mister Martin take you
out to see the city. And I thought it was
my brother in law, you know, messing with me. So
I said, Todd, go back to sleep. Man, I'm tired.
So I hung up phone rings again. I said, mister Foster,
this really mister Wu. I'm downstairs to pick you up.
(06:23):
So I thought, I cannot believe that clown is down there.
So I go knock on Todd's door and I said, Todd,
mister Wu is downstairs wants to take us out. He said,
I got a terrible headache. I just I can't do it.
You're going to have to carry the flag some like
go great. So I go down there and sure enough,
there he is. And we walk out the front door
(06:48):
and there's this like a Chinese Humvy type vehicle, and
I get up in that thing with him, and there's
there's a driver and he's got this lady back there,
and this is miss so and so. She's from Beijing.
She's an interpreter. I thought, oh great, you know they're
gonna take me somewhere. And he terrogate me, you want
(07:11):
to get another drink. I'm like, whatever you want to do,
mister Wa. We go to another hotel and walk into
the bar. It's pretty late, there's still quite a few
people in there, and we walk in and you could
tell immediately everybody in there and knew exactly who mister
Wu was. And of course they're looking at me because
I'm sure a lot of them had never seen an
(07:31):
American before. And we sat down at the table and
we're talking. Back in those days, I was in pretty
good physical condition. He reaches over and grabs my bicep,
squeezed and said, oh, you're very strolled. We kind of
laughed and he squeezed it again. You said you're very strong,
or Russell. I said what he said, arm Russell. He
(07:57):
throws his little skinny elbows up on the table. I
reached over there and put him down at about a
nano second, and he was like you were very strong.
So he brings over a couple other guys and they
iron wrestled them. I wind up arm wrestling probably ten
of these Chinese guys. Now I'm, you know, just taking
them down. Almost immediately. He looks at me and he says,
(08:20):
when are you supposed to leave? I said, well, we're
supposed to get on the bus by about seven in
the morning to head back to the coast and then
go to Hong Kong and fly home. And it's like
four o'clock in the morning by now. And he looks
at me. He said, you're not going home. I said,
what do you mean, I'm not going on? He said,
You're going to stay here and we're going to go
(08:40):
around arm wrestling and we're going to make a lot
of money. I said, mister Woo, I cannot do that.
I've got three kids at home, I've got things to do.
I cannot stay. He said, oh, yeah, you're staying. Well
I knew, you know, he pretty much held all the
chips and it was a long way to run to
the coast. So I thought about it for a second.
I said, I tell you what I'll do. You let
(09:00):
me go home and I'll promise you, I'll come back
in a couple of months, said, I'm going to bring
a buddy of mine from Mobile out here, as strong
as human being ever seen in my life. I guarantee it.
There's nobody in China that can beat this guy on
in wrestling. And he looked at me and he said,
are you telling me the truth? I said, yes, sir,
he is. Nobody can beat this guy. He said, you
promise you'll come back. I said, oh, yeah, I'll come back.
(09:22):
So he takes me back to the hotel and literally
I had fifteen minutes to go pack my stuff and
get back on the van we had taken us down
to the coast, and then we got on a on
hovercraft and went back to him to Hong Kong. And
I tell you, I was was like looking over my
shoulder the whole time, scared to death that, you know,
(09:43):
a pack of Chinese soldiers were going to be chasing me.
Fly back in the United States and landing in Atlanta
and I'm coming through US customs and you know, lady
agent looks at my looks at my passport, says, oh,
you've been to China, And I said yes, ma'am, And
she said, well, welcome back to United States, I said, lady,
(10:04):
you don't know how glad I am to be back
in the United States.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Billy Foster. And a special thanks to
Mark Foster his road trip from well, you know where.
And we all have them, folks. By the way, they
end up being great stories in the end, not while
you're going through them, but when you get out of them,
when they're in the rear view, they become really funny.
Send your road trips stories gone wrong to Ouramerican stories
(10:36):
dot com. That's road trips gone wrong. Send them to
our American stories dot com. The American businessman in China
here on our American Story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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